At just 7.7-inches square and 1.4-inches thin, the new Mac mini maintains its compact aluminum design while delivering twice the processor and graphics performance of the previous generation. Customers can choose from three different configurations of Mac mini with the latest dual-core Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6630M discrete graphics, or a quad-core Intel Core i7 powered server configuration.

Designed without an optical disc drive, Mac mini can access the optical drives on other PCs and Macs, and works with the MacBook Air SuperDrive. Configure-to-order options include up to 8 GBs of memory, a faster 7200 RPM hard drive and a 256GB solid state drive.

Mac mini delivers the speed and expandability that makes it perfect for the desktop, living room or office, said Philip Schiller, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. With faster processors, more powerful graphics and Thunderbolt in an incredibly compact, aluminum design, the new Mac mini is more versatile than ever.

Mac mini now comes with Thunderbolt I/O technology for expansion possibilities never before available to Mac mini users. With a Thunderbolt port, Mac mini can connect to peripherals such as high-performance storage devices, RAID arrays and the new Apple Thunderbolt Display, a crisp 27-inch IPS widescreen display thats great for making FaceTime HD video calls, surfing the Web and viewing movies and photos.

With ultra-fast Wi-Fi, users can wirelessly download apps from the Mac App Store, get music and movies from iTunes, back up data to Time Capsule and share files with AirDrop, which makes transferring files quick and easy. Mac also mini includes Bluetooth for wireless peripherals and four USB ports for easy connectivity for the wired and wireless devices you use every day.

At the same time, Apple said the new Mac mini remains the worlds most energy efficient desktop, meets Energy Star 5.2 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status. Mac mini has a highly recyclable aluminum enclosure, PVC-free components and cables, no brominated flame retardants and features material-efficient system and packaging designs.

Every new Mac mini comes with Mac OS X Lion, the latest major release of Mac OS X,, and iLife apps for creating and sharing great photos, movies and music.

The new Mac mini is available through the Apple Store today and in Apples retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers starting July 21.
The 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Mac mini with 2GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive starts at a suggested retail price of $599 (US), with options to add memory up to 8GB and a 750GB hard drive.
The 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Mac mini with 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive starts at a suggested retail price of $799 (US), with options to upgrade to a 2.7GHz dual-core Core i7 processor, up to 8GB of memory, and a 750GB hard drive with an option to add or replace with a 256GB solid state drive.
The 2.0 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 Mac mini with Lion Server, 4GB of memory and dual 500GB hard drives starts at a suggested retail price of $999 (US). Options include adding memory up to 8GB, two 750GB hard drives, or up to two 256GB solid state drives.

No optical drive now puts my last hope on a lower end Mac Pro. Not that I can afford it.

Apple just doesn't seem to understand the beauty of internal devices which is odd considering how much effort it puts into the look of its products. Apple really wants us to hide their designs behind third party external devices? I just don't get it.

The 2.0 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 Mac mini with Lion Server, 4GB of memory and dual 500GB hard drives starts at a suggested retail price of $999 (US). Options include adding memory up to 8GB, two 750GB hard drives, or up to two 256GB solid state drives.

No optical drive now puts my last hope on a lower end Mac Pro. Not that I can afford it.

Apple just doesn't seem to understand the beauty of internal devices which is odd considering how much effort it puts into the look of its products. Apple really wants us to hide their designs behind third party external devices? I just don't get it.

Apple really needs an XMac now.

Dude the Macbook Air Superdrive is only $79 and how often are you actually using it? I removed the optical drive in my laptop to add a 2nd HDD and I don't miss it at all. If you're worried about restores, just carve out a 9GB partition and restore the OSX software on to it.

Dude the Macbook Air Superdrive is only $79 and how often are you actually using it? I removed the optical drive in my laptop to add a 2nd HDD and I don't miss it at all. If you're worried about restores, just carve out a 9GB partition and restore the OSX software on to it.

Exactly. I have had my aluminum MacBook since November 2008, and I can recall using the optical drive maybe 2-3 times since then. Once was to run disk utility on my HD, which is no longer needed with Lion's recovery mode. And I think I may have ripped a CD. Other than this, I haven't needed it at all. I wish this space were for more battery capacity or for an SSD or something.

Wow, didn't see the discrete graphics coming. Also like the twist off bottom for adding additional RAM. Saves you money because you don't have to buy from Apple.

The discrete graphics is a welcome addition... but, according to the Apple store, it's not available on the base model. The base model uses Intel's 3000M. If you want discrete graphics, you're shelling out $800. :/

i wonder how much the dual rather than quad core will affect performance compared to the iMac. With discrete graphics, and throw in the SSD I bet it will still scream along. That is a very tempting little machine. And my nearly 6 year old mini is feeling rather old right now...

...except natch I want the AMD graphics and i7 and now I am up to a grand, and i doubt my wife will see that as reasonable upgrades to to a $600 machine.

OSX, because making UNIX user friendly is easier than debugging windows.

Thus ends the life of the Mac Mini as a home-theater PC. Back to a table-top of mismatched remotes...

+1

So for me to use the mini on my tv in the future as home entertainment system and to watch DVDs with it I need to either:

Use a remote disk on another computer within the home network, or
Rip the DVD on another computer then transfer the file over to the mini, or
Directly connect a USB DVD drive to it.

I support the fact that apple is pushing forward the new technologies and leaving behind the old, but I'm pretty sure DVDs are going to be around for sometime yet, especially for movies and such, killing them now is just a little premature in my opinion, especially on the mini.

The discrete graphics is a welcome addition... but, according to the Apple store, it's not available on the base model. The base model uses Intel's 3000M. If you want discrete graphics, you're shelling out $800. :/

That extra $200 gets you an extra 2GB of RAM, the discrete graphics (HD6630M - 480 shader cores at 485MHz, not a slouch at all even if it only has 256MB of its own RAM), and 200MHz on the CPU. Don't ask me why Apple skimped on the graphics memory, but at least it is GDDR5.

Even if you want 8GB, selling 2x 2GB sticks is far easier than selling 2x 1GB sticks, or the 4GB will last you until 8GB kits are even cheaper.

I think the Mac Mini dropping its optical drive points very strongly to the MacBook Pros and iMacs dropping their optical drives in the next update. Major redesigns all round?

I would think so. With software downloads, legal digital downloads of DVD movies, and flash memory (as OS backup drives, among other uses) becoming ubiquitous, it looks like the CD/DVD era is about to come to a close. I don't mind Apple getting rid of their DVD drives. There will always be third party folks to make add-on drives for the shrinking portion of the market who still needs that function.

Just my opinion. I'm not interested in starting up the old "spinning media" argument.

Thus ends the life of the Mac Mini as a home-theater PC. Back to a table-top of mismatched remotes...

Not completely. Only for those who rely heavily on playing DVDs. I think the number of people wanting to play actual DVDs is getting smaller by the day. I think the majority either watch from ripped content, or what they can stream from Netflix, Hulu, and other online sources.

You might argue it also ruins it for those who want to play BluRay disks, but of course Apple has never shown interest in joining that party. I could see them maybe Maybe adding BluRay support for high end Mac Pros for video professionals, but even this seems unlikely. With the trend toward streaming, it seems clear they are moving toward a disk-less future. It sounds like soon they will be offering 1080p content on iTunes, and I'm sure along with 1080 they will be announcing a huge increase in rental agreements for TV shows to go along with a larger HD movie library.

That extra $200 gets you an extra 2GB of RAM, the discrete graphics (HD6630M - 480 shader cores at 485MHz, not a slouch at all even if it only has 256MB of its own RAM), and 200MHz on the CPU. Don't ask me why Apple skimped on the graphics memory, but at least it is GDDR5.

Even if you want 8GB, selling 2x 2GB sticks is far easier than selling 2x 1GB sticks, or the 4GB will last you until 8GB kits are even cheaper.

The $799 mini is the Mini for the home user that may wish to play games, or run Windows at the same time in Parallels, etc.

Oh, I know everything else that comes with the $800 price tag. However, at that point, anyone who just wants a desktop computer (and doesn't have a monitor laying around) might as well go with a more powerful low-end iMac. I was excited to see discrete graphics at a $600 price tag... and then not so excited to realize I was wrong. :P

I'm curious about the internal layout now. I guess iFixit will elucidate in a few days. I imagine that the components now reach to the top of the case and the hard drives are now stacked on each other neatly instead of perpendicular to each other. I bet the graphics card is on an MXM card like the iMacs use. Would be nice if it was, then a possible upgrade later on would be possible for those who like to expand.

That extra $200 gets you an extra 2GB of RAM, the discrete graphics (HD6630M - 480 shader cores at 485MHz, not a slouch at all even if it only has 256MB of its own RAM), and 200MHz on the CPU. Don't ask me why Apple skimped on the graphics memory, but at least it is GDDR5.

Considering this is Apple I'd have to say the extra $200 gives surprising value. Look at it this way that is enough graphics RAM and GPU support for reasonable OpenCL performance. In a nutshell Apple now has a low cost OpenCL machine.

Quote:

Even if you want 8GB, selling 2x 2GB sticks is far easier than selling 2x 1GB sticks, or the 4GB will last you until 8GB kits are even cheaper.

It doesn't look to bad. However Apple is making it easy to turn up performance by offering up SSD / HD combo machines. This should lead to impressive user experiences.

Quote:

The $799 mini is the Mini for the home user that may wish to play games, or run Windows at the same time in Parallels, etc.

It could be a good business computer too.

What interests me is the quad core server variant. I'd love to see some benchmarking between that quad core model and it's least brother. Mainly I want to know how the Server Mini behaves as a XCode workstation with respect to the model below it. I would imagine for many others that quad core Mini could be a big advantage given the usage of lots of parallel code.

In any event it looks like Apple is going in the right direction with the Mini.

Oh, I know everything else that comes with the $800 price tag. However, at that point, anyone who just wants a desktop computer (and doesn't have a monitor laying around) might as well go with a more powerful low-end iMac. I was excited to see discrete graphics at a $600 price tag... and then not so excited to realize I was wrong. :P

Yep. My 17" iMac will need to be replaced for me to join the Lion party. I was thinking a mini would soften the hit to the credit card, but I'd like the discreet graphics, and then you're very close to an iMac with quad-core CPU, faster GPU, etc.

It wasn't a whine smarta$$, it was a curiosity question. Why a discrete graphics chip with only 256Mb of VRAM? It just seems out of place, considering (as stated) older ones had more and these days most all are coming with 512MB to 1G of VRAM.

So for me to use the mini on my tv in the future as home entertainment system and to watch DVDs with it I need to either:

Use a remote disk on another computer within the home network, or
Rip the DVD on another computer then transfer the file over to the mini, or
Directly connect a USB DVD drive to it.

I support the fact that apple is pushing forward the new technologies and leaving behind the old, but I'm pretty sure DVDs are going to be around for sometime yet, especially for movies and such, killing them now is just a little premature in my opinion, especially on the mini.

While I disagree with the notion that removing optical drives from Mac computers is a good thing, I also disagree that DVD is the future for home entertainment systems. If you have an HDTV and you want the highest quality video, you want Blu-ray, so you're going to be dealing with an external device anyway (since Apple refuses to support Blu-ray). If you're not going to use Blu-ray as a source, you might as well download.

If you'd be so kind as to make your post look like this section, that'd be great.

Quote:

considering (as stated) older ones had more and these days most all are coming with 512MB to 1G of VRAM.

Considering... what? Older what? Older professional desktop models? Sure, well, let's just go back and look at... OH what have we here? A low-end desktop model? One that is roughly one-thirtieth the physical size of, uses one-tenth the power of, and is designed to be nowhere near as fully featured as the professional desktop Mac to which you have erroneously compared the Mac Mini?

Why, I do believe it IS the low-end desktop model. Low-end being the key phrase.

It doesn't look to bad. However Apple is making it easy to turn up performance by offering up SSD / HD combo machines. This should lead to impressive user experiences.

This is the most exciting thing for me, because it means apple understands the utility. I'm hoping we see Macbook Pro's that offer this in the future...since it is what I'm doing in my macbook pro now.

The discrete graphics is a welcome addition... but, according to the Apple store, it's not available on the base model. The base model uses Intel's 3000M. If you want discrete graphics, you're shelling out $800. :/

Yea. The small amount of VRAM isn't optimal, but I'm happy they're at least offering it, even if it's only 256MB of VRAM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hattig

That extra $200 gets you an extra 2GB of RAM, the discrete graphics (HD6630M - 480 shader cores at 485MHz, not a slouch at all even if it only has 256MB of its own RAM), and 200MHz on the CPU. Don't ask me why Apple skimped on the graphics memory, but at least it is GDDR5.

The $799 mini is the Mini for the home user that may wish to play games, or run Windows at the same time in Parallels, etc.

Agreed. The GPU is a big leap in performance for those who need it.

Though after you get the 799 model, and then if you spring for the i7 processor, you're at $900, which then makes you wonder if you should just get a 21" iMac with a quad core i5 and a 512MB GPU, and a awesome 21" screen (IPS?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Outsider

The previous mini had this feature too. One of my favorite features of it. Now we just need a twist top to make use of all that extra space from the optical.

Thus ends the life of the Mac Mini as a home-theater PC. Back to a table-top of mismatched remotes...

I agree and am equally sad. I haven't used the Air external disk. Does it work seamlessly? If so, that's fine - we don't watch a ton of DVDs but I really liked a single machine to play DVDs, music, streamed video and stored video.

Our mini is giving up the ghost, I deferred buying the new mini after hearing that a new one was coming the fall (turns out it was summer). And now am wondering whether to buy the old ones as they start disappearing.

Does anyone know if the air external disk works easily? Easily enough for family to use? And can one be shared with multiple computers? May end up buying an air as well if so!

This means you can run an incredibly clean system with a Apple Thunderbolt Display by simply mounting the Mac mini "out of sight out of mind" and hooking the external superdrive and other peripherals to the display. Voila

Thunderbolt is really nice. Even the base $600 dollar Mac mini sitting in front if a TB RAID would make for a fast NAS.

He's a mod so he has a few extra vBulletin privileges. That doesn't mean he should stop posting or should start acting like Digital Jesus.- SolipsismX

Glad to see the CPU muscle, but Apple's not doing anything more for me on supporting multiple displays. There's always the mac pro but that did not get the expected refresh today. I guess if you want hella monitors you have to get the 27" iMac which has dual Thunderbolt ports, then you could have three 2560x1440 monitors (counting the iMac). Its making me think about going hackintosh; straight PC hardware makes it easy to support two or 3 big monitors. Right now I have a 2009 mac mini driving a Dell u2711 and a generic 1920x1200, and these new models don't give me more.

It should be easy to upgrade the RAM. What about the hard disk? Anyone know does Lion support TRIM?